1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an entry assistance apparatus, and more particularly an apparatus for assisting the user in making handwritten entry. The present invention also relates to a method in the apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Computers, such as personal computers, and input devices, such as a control panel having a touch screen, allowing the users to manipulate the display screen have heretofore broadly spread. Concomitantly, the method of inputting letters and characters by the users has become more diversified. On the other hand, there still exist occasions in which the users write letters or characters by hand in order to enter the handwritten letters or characters on paper media. For example, the users may fill in paper forms prepared in shops of financial organizations, such as banks.
Under those circumstances, various solutions have been developed for processing the input of handwritten letters and characters the users provide. One of the solutions for alleviating the loads and burden imposed when handwritten letters and characters are electronically recognized or imposed on clerical processing in financial organizations is taught by Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 100672/1989 to Karahashi et al. A solution for detecting the position and angle of the sections or items on an input menu sheet for use in electronically entering characters put on the tablet of a handwritten character recognizer to thereby recognize the characters entered is disclosed by Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2002-23938 to Mori.
Solutions for assisting the users in inputting document data have also been developed. A solution for assisting the users in producing documents having its format predetermined to include items to be filled in is disclosed in Japanese patent laid-open application No. 176015/1994 to Ishihara.
As disclosed by Karahashi et al., and Mori indicated above, the conventional solutions for processing handwritten characters the users provide intend to reduce the load imposed when the electronic equipment recognizes the user's handwritten characters by means of a digital input method using a control panel and a cursor manipulator or touch pen.
When the user or customer fills in a paper form sheet (paper medium) in a shop of a financial organization, the form may include plural items that the user has to fill in, as well as examples of entry and notanda which may often be cumbersome. That may often cause the user not to easily find out information necessary to make the entry.
However, those conventional solutions for processing the input of handwritten letters and characters the users provide are not designed to assist the users when writing text by hand. Therefore, if such conventional solutions for processing the input of handwritten letters and characters the users provide are used, it would be impossible to improve the convenience of the users when entering letters or characters through handwriting on recording media.
The conventional solutions for processing the input of handwritten letters and characters the users provide thus rely upon a digital input method by means of a control panel or a cursor pen. It would therefore be difficult to apply those conventional solutions to the users when writing on a paper medium by hand.
In the conventional solution for assisting user's input disclosed in Ishihara indicated above, when the user selects a message or exemplary sentence corresponding to items to be filled out as appropriate, information content assisting the user in inputting the selected message or exemplary sentence is displayed on the display screen.
However, in the conventional solutions for assisting the users in inputting letters or characters, information content necessary for such assistance would not be displayed on the display screen until they manipulate the machine in a prescribed manner. With those conventional solutions, burden is thus imposed on the users. Those solutions thus failed to improve the user's convenience.